Music Reviews : Rare Haydn Opera Presented by Euterpe

Witty, inventive music poured out in a seemingly endless stream when Euterpe Opera Theatre presented Joseph Haydn’s “Infidelity Foiled,” better known--but barely--in its Italian-language original as “L’infedelta delusa,” on Thursday at the United University Church on the USC campus.

Although the production, fluidly staged by Sheryn Abramian, its functional set designed with imaginative simplicity by Mark Winters, proved eminently satisfying and utilized an accomplished cast of young singers, the revelation of the evening was Haydn’s rarely acknowledged operatic mastery.

In setting Marco Coltellini’s libretto, heard on this occasion in Andrew Porter’s English translation, Haydn showed that he could dignify the silliest of texts (although this one is knowingly so, rather than dumb through ineptitude) with his genius for characterization.

Haydn found an individual musical tone, with an individual harmonic pattern in the orchestra, for each of his five characters in a never-fresh plot about generally dimwitted, star-crossed lovers, an overbearing, socially climbing father and a phony marriage contract.

In the plum role of Vespina, the resident smartperson who takes on a variety of identities (the resemblance, in more than name, to Despina in the later Mozart-da Ponte “Cosi fan tutte” is inescapable), Susan Holsonbake proved a pert stage personality and the possessor of an attractively bright-edged soprano that readily encompassed Haydn’s flights.

The more placid Sandrina was sung with exemplary coloratura and purity of tone (her indistinct consonants notwithstanding) by Deborah Mayhan, while the roles of their suitors were capably projected by tenor Steven Dunham (his serenade on horseback is a priceless--and lovely--sendup) and baritone Roberto Gomez. Tenor Gabriel Reoyo-Pazos sang with the requisite bluster while commendably underplaying the mustache twirling of Sandrina’s grasping father.

David Anglin provided alert, propulsive support conducting the small ensemble entrusted with Haydn’s imaginatively varied orchestration. A special word of gratitude for Bing Wang’s supple, sweet-toned execution of the violin obbligatos.